Why buy a DDP?

Any purchase of industrial goods one makes, should be as future proof as possible. The broadcast industry changes rapidly. Ethernet is becoming the dominant network technology in all sorts of ways including cloud usage. Bandwidth requirements increase due to more collaboration and 4K/8K implementations. Also, there is less and less time and knowledge to manage complex infrastructures and workflows. These changes have a large impact on our storage industry. However, the biggest impact on our storage industry comes from flash memory, e.g. SSDs.

DDP is an Ethernet SAN

Wire Speed Access

DDP Power iSCSi AVFS

SSD Caching

Why SSDs? Well, 3,5 inch hard disks increase in capacity e.g. 15 TB, but 15 TB 2,5 inch SSD are already announced as well. SSDs are small, low power, lightweight, they have no rotating parts and are highly reliable and very fast. Some shared storage users already use SSDs in some way or another and experienced their advantages. Between now and some time from now you will decide that you want to start using SSDs also in your shared storage environment. To make such a transition you need to be fully aware of how this market will look like within, for example, 8 years from now. It sounds like a long time, but it is predictable that 24/7 hard disks will be replaced by SSDs as primary storage. So how can the transition be smooth?

The magic words are hybrid DDPs with SSD Caching and Load Balancing and adding DDP16EX, DDP24EX and DDP60EXR on the fly with automated data redistribution. This can be done without administrative changes in the web interface, the front-end. And there is more magic with our DDP Cluster technology. With this technology even any DDP can be added on the fly at the back-end, again with no administrative changes on the front end. DDPs of different build date and different type can be combined into such cluster.

SSD Caching

Load Balancing

Mirroring

DDP Cluster

If necessary, a DDP can be removed, used standalone elsewhere, and after finishing the job added again with immediate availability of the media. This all results in Linear Scaling both in capacity and bandwidth, plus Mirrored ingest, copying and recording capabilities.

These possibilities such as SSD Caching, Load Balancing, Mirroring, Adding/removing on the fly without changes on the front-end are the result of many man years of software development. The two basic principles are: 1. the ability to move, copy and consolidate files from one data location to another within and between DDPs without changing the directory/folder tree structure and transparant to the user; 2. parallel iSCSI/AVFS access from each desktop to/from DDPs. These principles results in a modular, high speed, heterogeneous Scale Out system. One volume of dozens of petabytes on a DDP Cluster with 100 GB/s throughput and grow as you go.

For DDP users the transition path is straightforward, especially when they have one DDP volume per Drive Group. DDP users can expand with SSD or HD packs for Caching and Load Balancing. Over the years more SSD packs will be installed. And more and more ingesting will be done directly on SSDs. Then, eventually, the DDP base system itself is up for renewal because it is getting too old. This is also a smooth process. Just integrate the newly purchased DDP into the existing setup, connect to the network and power up. Taking the original one out of order can be decided any time. There is no urgency anymore. This DDP may even get a new life for Mirroring the data if it is not too old.

Parallel Data Access

Projects match Capacity

DDPs FolderVolumes

One Namespace

This scenario takes place without having to make changes to your Folder Volume structure (One Namespace), without having to make changes to users, groups and access rights and without having to make changes to application settings running on top of this. The new DDP can be in another machine room, as long as it is on the same subnet.

Over time, however, more and more newly purchased DDP can be microDDP10GbEs with sufficient capacity. Because the microDDP10GbE does not require a machine room, each DDP can really be Here, There or Elsewhere.

It is imaginable that for non-DDP shared storage users the picture painted here is frustrating – for others it may sound like a dream come true or maybe even hard to believe. Especially when you consider that the transition of both HD to SSD, and the transition of an old DDP to a new DDP is smooth. So, non-DDP users, who are cost and efficiency conscious, and are thinking about renewing their old storage, should definitely investigate DDP.

So, how does the future of the shared storage looks like? There is no need to ask that question, because that future is here with the software DDP offers. Of course, DDP will miniaturize further and certainly the capacity and bandwidth will keep on increasing. Just to get an idea where we are heading, ask us how we would offer a system now with this future in mind? Asking this question may help broadcast professionals decide on DDP from Ardis Technologies.

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